78 NATURAL HISTORY OF AMIA CALVA LINNAEUS. * 



estimated at about twenty, had gathered about this crate. At 9 o'clock five were 

 still there and appeared to be at work beneath the crate. In the mean time all the 

 nests, eight in number and all without eggs, on the opposite side of the bay at a 

 distance of about thirty metres were deserted by their male occupants. On the 

 following day one male was still at the crate and two new nests had been built 

 near it, one at a distance of three metres and one at six metres. The males about 

 the crate were by no means easily frightened, so that one could walk out on the 

 gang-plank to the crate and watch their movements. On April 28 the males were 

 gone, and when the females were removed from the crate there was found a large 

 nest excavated in the ground beneath the crate. 



The behavior of the spawning fish was observed in one instance by Whitman 

 and Eycleshymer ('97), but for only a brief period; I too have observed spawning 

 only once, but for a much longer time than Whitman and Eycleshymer. "Nest 

 No. 35 was found April 25, and then contained a moderate number of eggs in early 

 embryonic stages. The male was on the nest at 11 a.m. April 26, and again at 1 

 p.m. I went to this nest at 3 p.m. April 26, and upon approaching it saw a fish- 

 tail appear above the water. I brought the boat to within two feet of the nest, and 

 found the water much roiled. After some time I could make out two fish, a large 

 female and a male, both moving about in the nest. The male was much more 

 active than the female and was engaged in circling about the nest in such a way as 

 to meet the female head on and travel thence toward her tail. As he moved past 

 her he bit her either on the snout, or on the side of the head, or on the body as far 

 back as the middle. When the male attempted to pass the female by circling 

 from her tail toward her head, she, in two cases observed, turned so as to rotate her 

 long axis through one hundred and eighty degrees, thus reversing the direction 

 of the male with reference to her and again making his course from head to tail. 

 This movement appeared to indicate to the male that she was not ready to spawn. 

 If she had not turned, the male would have lain by her side, their heads in the same 

 direction, the spawning position. The movements of the fish kept the water so 

 roiled that details could be seen only occasionally. Several times the circling was 

 interrupted by more violent movements of both fish, the nature of which could not 

 be made out, but at these times the fish were probably spawning. Both left the 

 nest a number of times and then returned to it and resumed their movements. 

 The female left the nest first at such times, and the male remained circling over it. 

 Presently he also left the nest, made a circle of one and one-half to two metres in 

 diameter as though searching for the female, and then returned. At times he made 

 a second circle in the same or in a different direction, and often a third and a fourth. 



